The players were on their way to Pagham for Horsham's Sussex Senior Cup quarter-final against their Southern Combination Football League opponents.

But with another car carrying four players broken down as well, the referee and the County FA decided to postpone the game.

Barrett told us: "Three of our players travelling from South and East London together they were involved in an accident on the A2 out of London.

"It was a significant accident and the player driving, his car was I believe is a write off but the players were not injured.

"As I understand it, and I have to say I only have the briefest of details, there was another incident where a car broke down which had four players in.

"We had a situation where we were already slightly depleted because we had couple of players cup-tied and a couple of players unavailable for other reasons.

"We only had six players at the ground. We might have been able to get players there later on but Pagham are not allowed to have cup games where extra time is involved to go on past a certain time due to floodlight regulations.

"We spoke to the referee and he spoke to the County FA representative who was coming to the game on the phone and concluded the game had to be postponed tonight."

Barrett added: "The main thing is the players are not hurt, but I believe they are quite shaken."